What to do with 4 Digital Satellite Receivers (forclosed home came with them)

[Van Chocstraw]

They are good for boat anchors or door stops. They don't want them back. They give them out free.

[Donna DeLong]

Interesting. Do I understand this right? You're saying I can "repurpose" the two spare satellite dishes and 4 receivers as a "regular" TV antenna (and a WiFi antenna too)?

That would be wonderful!

There is no cable or DSL up here in the mountains so it would be useful to pluck "regular" TV right out of the air (just like in the olden days).

Is this the article you're referring to?

[Donna DeLong]

I don't know how old the two dishes are but the owners who were foreclosed on bought the house in July of 2006 so they are probably of that vintage since wires below them are painted but not these dish cables.

It seems the 2 dishes are more repurposeable than the 4 receivers.

I'm sorry I took this OT, but to respond, it's a 1,100 gallon tank but it has no sticker on it.

I called around to find out who owned it but gave up after waiting on hold at several companies. Everyone I called said they'd fill it after an initial inspection. They asked for a "bill of sale" and I gave them the title papers to the house (none of which mention the propane tank other than it's working).

The propane inspection cost $125 and they checked that the earthquake straps, concrete pad and roll-down-the-hill posts were all to code. Then they filled it to 80% at $2.49/gallon (my first home owner shock!).

Back to the dishes, since I have no money (anymore), I am going to see if I can "repurpose" the satellite dishes as a TV or WiFi antenna as suggested to pluck free signals out of the air as suggested at

[Rudy]

Direct TV wont come out to take them down-Unless YOU are prepared to pay for a Service Call.

Put them on CRAIGSLIST in the FREE section and someone will happily come and take them down for you.

Explain that they'll need to bring a ladder with them and add in the 'AD' that the climbing is 'at their own risk". Have them caulk the holes where the lag screws were..YOU may need to have a tube of caulking ready when they get there.

If you were in my town (Tus AZ) I' d come and get them.

[Donna DeLong]

I wonder how long abandonment lasts?

The foreclosed house was empty for two years.

In the end, none of the doors even locked anymore yet nobody took the receivers or the dishes (although they did take the glass microwave dish and the grill, all the pool equipment, and the fireplace burners. :(

It seems the dishes and receivers aren't all that useful unless they are used for DirecTV subscription (which I'll never get) or if I repurpose them.

It seems the 2 dishes can be repurposed as free-to-air TV and WiFi antennas and the 4 receivers can basically be sold to someone who does have a DirecTv subscription (assuming there's no money owed on them).

I would like to have TV up here in the hills. Should I just put up a really good TV antenna hooked to the 10,000 gallon water tank instead?

[Donna DeLong]

In summary, it seems the receivers are only good for someone who has DirecTV (as a spare for example), and even then, someone said only if no money is owed on them (or the cards in them).

I'd wager money is owed on the DirecTV because the house was a foreclosure and there were piles and piles of old mail in the mailbox much of which was collection agency stuff.

I'm thinking the 2 dish antennas may be more usable but then I have to compare their usefulness to just buying a really good antenna to pluck TV signals out of the air up here a few thousand feet up above the valley.

[Percival P. Cassidy]

For several years now DirecTV's contracts have said that even if you "buy" a DirecTV receiver or Digital Video Recorder, it is still considered to be leased and remains the property of DirecTV: the "purchase price" (whether they come directly from DirecTV or from Best Buy or from ...) is merely the initial payment.

I have read of cases where people have acquired DirecTV receivers (e.g., on eBay) that DirecTV claimed belonged to them: on the one hand they refused to reactivate them for the new "owner"; but OTOH they did not want them back.

I think your safest bet would be to write to DirecTV, quoting the model numbers, serial numbers and the numbers on the cards, and ask what you should do with them -- making clear that you are not interested in subscribing to DirecTV yourself.

If DirecTV says they don't want them back -- or simply does not respond at all after a month or two, I guess that leaves you in the clear to do whatever you want with them.

As for the dishes... The older round or slightly elliptical ones are being replaced for High-Definition service via new satellites. When our old one was replaced, the installer threw it down on the ground but took away the LNBs (the more-or-less cylindrical gizmos that point into the dish). He would have taken away the slightly damaged dish but was happy to leave it for me to repurpose.

Perce

[K]

List them on Craig's List or ebay and hope you make a few bucks.

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[DA]

Assuming the dishes are properly mounted and the cables leading to the receivers are still intact, the installed dishes by themselves may be worth much more than the trouble of removing them and selling the individual components on eBay can fetch you. The receivers can be relatively easily upgraded by just buying new ones but the labor to install the dishes and run the cable to the receiver is a fixed cost, already paid for by someone else. Unless your HOA has a problem with the dishes, I would just leave them until you decide if you want the service. Assuming this is an older DirectTV install, maybe you can get some kind of an upgrade deal from them for the four receivers? Worth a call to them (if you want the service of course)

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[Donna DeLong]

That makes sense. I assume the dishes work with any supplier (although they have the DirecTV logo printed on them which I can see from the ground).

I guess what you're suggesting is: a) Leave the 2 dishes where they are (with all the wires running into the house as they are)

b) Get rid of the 4 satellite receivers (Ebay or otherwise)

c) If I ever wish to have DirecTV or Dish Network, then just call them for new satellite receivers and cards.

Is that the suggestion?

[Donna DeLong]

Interesting. That would mean I can't sell them but I don't really want to go to that trouble for 20 bucks each anyway. That's one reason why I was wondering what good they were (to me).

Oh. I didn't think about the "reactivation" needed. So, if I wanted DirecTV or the Dish Network, I'd have to call them to activate the 4 receivers and they would if money wasn't owed on them?

I should do this. The only thing I'm worried about is that they'll want to also remove their two dishes on the roofline boards (it doesn't seem clear who owns them even though they're "attached" to the house).

This is a reasonable plan. I don't actually have any "plans" for the 4 satellite receivers (Sony SAT-B55 Digital Satellite Receiver; Sony SAT-B65 Digital Satellite Receiver; DirectTV H10 HD Receiver;DirectTV H11 Satellite Receiver).

I was just wondering if the satellite receivers were "useful" to me in some way.

Apparently the only real use for satellite receivers is for me to sell them to someone who has DirecTV or Dish Network; but that's not worth it for me for the 20 bucks each would fetch on Craigslist.

These look round and are about a foot and a half in diameter. Does that make them the old ones or the newer ones?

[Donna DeLong]

I'm beginning to realize I should just throw away the 4 satellite receivers and concentrate on finding a use for the 2 dish antennas.

I noticed there is something called "Free To Air" satellite reception.

Do you think I can use the existing 18" circular DirecTV dishes and just buy a FTA receiver to replace the 4 DirecTV receivers in the house (as suggested here)? Do I understand FTA correctly that all I need is one FTA receiver and I can get free television signals from an existing DirecTV dish?

[Donna DeLong]

I wonder if the two ~18" DirecTV dishes would be useful as a WiFi antenna?

Or maybe I can repurpose the DirecTV dishes as Free-to-Air TV antennas (with a suitable FTA receiver)? Any experience out there in that?

[Mike Russell]

Yep - since these are tied to a proprietary receiver box, etc.

Normally FTP requires either a 1.7 meter ku-band dish, or an 8 foot analog dish. The second one will receive a greater number of interesting FTA channels - for example Classic Arts Showcase. There are also a lot of relatively low priced subscriptions services directed at North American markets, available for the 8 footers. I did my own survey several years ago, when I decided to drop cable, and as far as I could tell the FTA that the ku-birds carry is mostly religious junk, though there are exceptions, things like NASA.

The best way to have fun with ku-band is to move to Europe, where most material, including some HBO channels, is nationally funded, in effect FTA.

You also need the receiver box, and a motorized mount so that it can aim at the various satellites. There are kits for this in the several hundred dollar range that include the dish, mount, and computer card to drive the dish. You are still limited by the poor selection of channels available in the US.

I'm posting from the gps group - I'd aim a virtual dish at some of the alt.satellite.tv groups for more info.

[Mike Russell]

Oops - ku dishes are less than a meter in diameter - as small as .7, not

1.7m as I said in my last post.

[joeturn]

p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-to-air

the dishes are no good for fta it requires a minimum of 30 inches for ku band fta, a 36" one will work good on h-h90 motor. The lnbs will do just fine> yes that is the modification to get wifi for your lap top and local ota digital signal for your tv. Engadgit took it from Trevor Marshal About the fta do some reading on this site it seems to be a lot more than just nasa.

[joeturn]

heres a channel list from that site see if your interested?

[Donna DeLong]

I checked each of the DirecTV cards in the 4 receivers.

They seem to be the latest DirecTV "P4 ISO7816 smart access cards" (which came after 2002) as shown in the picture on this web page.

[Donna DeLong]

Your information allows me to conclude the DirecTV dish antenna is too small for FTA TV reception.

I guess the only options left for the DirecTV antennas are:

1. Leave them on the roof or give them back to DirecTV (the default)
2. Turn one or both of the DirecTV dishes into 802.11 WiFi antennas
3. Turn a DirecTV antenna into a TV antenna

The latter two might be of use since my WiFi signal doesn't cover all corners of the house and since there is no cable TV on this side of the mountain.

I see some people take two dish antennas to make a home WiFi extender.

[Donna DeLong]

I have a question about both of these uses.

1. For the WiFi laptop access, is the point that we could pick up free WiFi access points out of the air? Or is the point that inside our house, we could increase the WiFi signal distance from one end of the house to the other?
2. For Over-the-Air digital TV signals, does the repurposed DirecTV antenna have any advantages over a commercially bought TV antenna?